How do you spot the potential for physical violence from a student or adult? Is the angry individual dressed in black the most likely source? What's the chance of an unpremeditated incident in your school?
While most experts on school violence focus on college and university campuses, the insights they offer and the structures they suggest have implications for private-independent schools.
For example, "We know from the research that most perpetrators of school violence do not emerge from the other with surprise attacks no one saw coming. Instead, it is quite the opposite," says an article in the URMIA Journal (University Risk Management and Insurance Association) titled "Second Generation Behavioral Intervention Best Practices."
This article is posted on the National Behavioral Intervention Team Association (NaBITA) Web site. In its 2009 whitepaper "Threat Assessment in the Campus Setting," NaBITA offers a resource for identifying and evaluating at-risk students.
The Behavioral Intervention Team Threat Assessment Tool cross-references mental and behavioral health, generalized risk levels, and the nine levels of aggression in a diagram.
NaBITA calls the mental/behavioral health aspect "The 'D' Scale." The whitepaper says, "While this scale may represent some oversimplification compared to the clinical assessment of a mental health professional, it is not a gross oversimplification. It is pared to the point of easy application without needing a high level of mental health expertise."
Here's what the scale tracks, from "Distress" at the "trigger" phase of threat to "Dysregulation/Medically Disabled" at the "crisis" phase. (The article notes that Medically Disabled is a clinical term, as in a psychotic break. It is not the same as "disabled" under federal law.)
The "D" Scale
DISTRESS
- Emotionally troubled (e.g., depressed, manic, unstable)
- Individuals impacted by actual/perceived situational stressors and traumatic events
- Behavior may subside when stressor is removed or trauma is addressed/processed
- May be psychiatrically symptomatic if not coping/adapting to stressors/trauma
DISTURBANCE
- Increasingly behaviorally disruptive; unusual, and/or bizarrely acting
- May be destructive, apparently harmful or threatening to others
- Substance misuse and abuse; self-medication
DYSREGULATION
- Suicidal (thoughts, feelings, expressed intentions and ideations)
- Parasuicidal (extremes of self-injurious behavior, eating disorder, personality disorder)
- Individuals engaging in risk-taking behaviors (e.g., substance abusing)
- Hostile, aggressive, relationally abusive
- Individuals deficient in skills that regulate emotion, cognition, self, behavior, and relationships
MEDICAL DISABILITY (a parallel level of risk to dysregulation)
- Profoundly disturbed, detached view of reality
- Unable to care for themselves (poor self care/protection/judgment)
- At risk of grievous injury or death without an intent to self-harm
- Often seen in psychotic breaks
For a look at the other components of the tool, the full text of the whitepaper is published on the NaBITA Web site. You'll find additional whitepapers and articles on campus safety from other sources in the "resources + faqs" section.
